Human-itarian aid? Two forms of dehumanization and willingness to help after natural disasters

Abstract

The present research explores the distinct effects of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization on willingness to help natural disaster victims. We examined Japanese and Haitians, two national groups recently struck by earthquakes. We showed that Italian participants differently dehumanized the two outgroups: Japanese were attributed low human nature (dehumanized as automata), whereas Haitians were attributed low human uniqueness (dehumanized as animal-like). Ninety participants were then randomly assigned to the Japanese or Haitian target group condition. Mediation analyses showed that animalistic dehumanization decreased willingness to help Haitians, whereas mechanistic dehumanization decreased willingness to help Japanese, even when controlling for attitudes. Importantly, reduced empathy explained the effects of both forms of dehumanization on intergroup helping.

The unique effects of blatant dehumanization on attitudes and behavior towards Muslim refugees during the European ‘refugee crisis’ across four countries

“…At the same time, it was clear that the effects of blatant dehumanization were not redundant with either trait empathic concern or perspective taking (with the latter typically not associated with outcomes). Nevertheless, whereas we focused here on trait empathy (consistent with its recognized role in predicting altruism, including in intergroup contexts; e.g., Batson et al, ) others have examined the relationship between subtle dehumanization and state empathy (e.g., Andrighetto et al, ; Čehajić et al, ), suggesting that dehumanization can in fact predict hostile attitudes in part by reducing state empathy for targets. Future work should consider how blatant dehumanization is associated with state as well as trait empathy.…”

“…One prominent branch of this research, for example, has shown that people have the tendency to attribute fewer 'humanspecific' emotions and traits to outgroup others (for review, see Haslam & Loughnan, 2014). For example, Cuddy, Rock, and Norton (2007) found that individuals who attributed fewer uniquely-human emotions to outgroup survivors of Hurricane Katrina (i.e., 'infrahumanized' them; see Leyens et al, 2000) intended to help them less, and Andrighetto, Baldissarri, Lattanzio, Loughnan, and Volpato (2014) similarly observed that Italians who denied Haitians uniquelyhuman traits expressed less willingness to help after a humanitarian crisis. Lending experimental support, work in Europe indicates that Turks who are described with infrahumanizing words are more strongly discriminated against than those described with humanizing words or with no humanity-relevant words (Pereira, Vala, & Leyens, 2009).…”

“…Empathy has also been shown to be associated with subtle forms of dehumanization when negotiating intergroup conflict (Čehajić, Brown, & González, 2009) and when considering humanitarian aid. In fact, the effect of Italians' subtle dehumanization of Haitians on their unwillingness to help after a humanitarian crisis was entirely explained by the association between subtle dehumanization and empathy (Andrighetto et al, 2014).…”

Intergroup Contact and Outgroup Humanization: Is the Causal Relationship Uni- or Bidirectional?

“…However, the other groups are not only infrahumanized, they may also be dehumanized, and different forms of dehumanization have been discovered. Outgroups are assimilated to animals when they are perceived as lacking the unique features of the human species (see [15–18]); outgroups are assimilated to machines when they are perceived as lacking the essential features of human nature (e.g., emotionality, vitality, and warmth; see [1, 19], see also [20]). Dementalization may also be revealed, for instance when outgroups are perceived as irrelevant to the fulfillment of one’s goals [21, 22].…”

Intergroup helping relations

“…The de-humanization of victims of earthquakes in Japan and Haiti by Italian participants (i.e. assigning machine-like and animal-like attributes to them, respectively) led to lower readiness to help them [13]. Interestingly, the reverse is also true.…”